Isognathotermes schmidti (Emerson, 1928)

Figs 43–44; Table 6

Revised herein as junior synonym of I. fungifaber .

Cubitermes (Mirotermes) schmidti Emerson, 1928: 520–521, fig. 62.

Cubitermes schmidti – Snyder 1949: 163. — Krishna et al. 2013: 1935.

Cubitermes fungifaber – Ruelle 1992: 501. — Josens & Deligne 2019: 61.

Isognathotermes fungifaber – Hellemans et al. 2021: 233.

Junior synonym of Isognathotermes fungifaber (Sjöstedt, 1896) .

Etymology

In the original description, Emerson (1928: 521) stated: “I have named the species in honor of Mr. Karl P. Schmidt, to whom I owe my first introduction to termites.”

Historical review

Emerson (1928: 520–521) described this species under the name Cubitermes (Mirotermes) schmidti in the family Termitidae . He provided a description, biometrical data and a figure of imago and soldier, together with a few measurements of worker.

Snyder (1949: 163) catalogued C. schmidti in the sub-family Termitinae .

This is one of the species that Ruelle (1992: 501) called “forgotten species”.

Krishna et al. (2013: 1935) referred to this species under the name C. schmidti and housed it in the sub-family Cubitermitinae . They reported that Emerson (in his unpublished “card catalog”) considered C. schmidti a junior synonym of C. fungifaber . This latter opinion of Emerson is also reported by Ruelle (1992: 501). Synonymy of the two species is compatible with their enteric valve morphology, as Josens & Deligne (2019: 39–42) placed C. schmidti within the fungifaber valve pattern group.

Hellemans et al. (2021: 233) placed this species in the restored genus Isognathotermes .

Two type samples have been examined (see Isognathotermes fungifaber, DJ 0124 and DJ 0275).

Isognathotermes schmidti, along with I. banksi and I. comstocki are rather small in comparison with I. fungifaber (see Table 6). As already explained for I. banksi, new material was collected by one of us (PA) and sequenced (Hellemans et al. 2021) with the conclusion that the four above species belong to the same clade. Therefore, I. schmidti (Emerson, 1928) is confirmed as a junior synonym of I. fungifaber (Sjöstedt, 1896) .